reception might await us. We were reassured by the sight of the
tri-coloured flag, which was flying on two or three buildings. But we
were mistaken; these buildings were Dutch. Immediately upon our
entrance, a Spaniard, whom, from his tone of authority, we took for a
high functionary of the Regency, came up to Damian, and asked him: "What
do you bring?" "I bring," answered the commander, "four Frenchmen." "You
will at once take them back again. I prohibit you from disembarking." As
we did not seem inclined to obey his order, our Spaniard, who was the
constructing engineer of the ships of the Dey, armed himself with a
pole, and commenced battering us with blows. But immediately a Genoese
seaman, mounted on a neighbouring vessel, armed himself with an oar, and
struck our assailant both with edge and point. During this animated
combat we managed to land without any opposition. We had conceived a
singular idea of the manner in which the police act on the coast of
Africa.
We pursued our way to the French Consul's, M. Dubois Thainville. He was
at his country house. Escorted by the janissary of the consulate, we
went off towards this country house, one of the ancient residences of
the Dey, situated not far from the gate of Bab-azoum. The consul and his
family received us with great amity, and offered us hospitality.
Suddenly transported to a new continent, I looked forward anxiously to
the rising of the sun to enjoy all that Africa might offer of interest
to a European, when all at once I believed myself to be engaged in a
serious adventure. By the faint light of the dawn, I saw an animal
moving at the foot of my bed. I gave a kick with my foot: all movement
ceased. After some time, I felt the same movement made under my legs. A
sharp jerk made this cease quickly. I then heard the fits of laughter of
the janissary, who lay on the couch in the same room as I did; and I
soon saw that he had simply placed on my bed a large hedgehog to amuse
himself by my uneasiness.
The consul occupied himself the next day in procuring a passage for us
on board a vessel of the Regency which was going to Marseilles. M.
Ferrier, the Chancellor of the French Consulate, was at the same time
Consul for Austria. He procured for us two false passports, which
transformed us--M. Berthémie and me--into two strolling merchants, the
one from _Schwekat_, in Hungary, the other from _Leoben_.
The moment of departure had arrived; the 13th of August, 1808, we were
on board, but our ship's company was not complete. The captain, whose
title was Raï Braham Ouled Mustapha Goja, having perceived that the Dey
was on his terrace, and fearing punishment if he should delay to set
sail, completed his crew at the expense of the idlers who were looking
on from the pier, and of whom the greater part were not sailors. These
poor people begged as a favour for permission to go and inform their
families of this precipitate departure, and to get some clothes. The
captain remained deaf to their remonstrances. We weighed anchor.
The vessel belonged to the Emir of Seca, Director of the Mint. The real
commander was a Greek captain, named Spiro Calligero. The cargo
consisted of a great number of _groups_. Amongst the passengers there
were five members of the family which the Bakri had succeeded as kings
of the Jews; two ostrich-feather merchants, Moroccans; Captain Krog,
from Berghen in Norway, who had sold his ship at Alicant; two lions sent
by the Dey to the emperor Napoleon, and a great number of monkeys. Our
voyage was prosperous. Off Sardinia we met with an American ship coming
out from Cagliari. A cannon-shot (we were armed with forty pieces of
small power) warned the captain to come to be recognized. He brought on
board a certain number of counterparts of passports, one of which agreed
perfectly with that which we carried. The captain being thus all right,
was not a little astonished when I ordered him, in the name of Captain
Braham, to furnish us with tea, coffee, and sugar. The American captain
protested; he called us brigands, pirates, robbers. Captain Braham
admitted without difficulty all these qualifications, and persisted none
the less in the exaction of sugar, coffee, and tea.
The American, then driven to the last stage of exasperation, addressed
himself to me, who acted as interpreter, and cried out, "Oh! rogue of a
renegade! if ever I meet you on holy ground I will break your head."
"Can you then suppose," I answered him, "that I am here for my pleasure,
and that, notwithstanding your menace, I would not rather go with you,
if I could?" These words calmed him; he brought the sugar, the coffee,
and the tea claimed by the Moorish chief, and we again set sail, though
without having exchanged the usual farewell.
We had already entered the Gulf of Lyons, and were approaching
Marseilles, when on the 16th August, 1808, we met with a Spanish corsair
from Palamos, armed at the prow with two twenty-four pounders. We made
full sail; we hoped to escape it: but a cannon-shot, a ball from which
went through our sails, taught us that she was a much better sailer than
we were.
We obeyed an injunction thus expressed, and awaited the great boat from
the corsair. The captain declared that he made us prisoners, although
Spain was at peace with Barbary, under the pretext that we were
violating the blockade which had been lately raised on all the coasts of
France: he added, that he intended to take us to Rosas, and that there
the authorities would decide on our fate.
I was in the cabin of the vessel; I had the curiosity to look furtively
at the crew of the boat, and there I perceived, with a dissatisfaction
which may easily be imagined, one of the sailors of the "Mistic,"
commanded by Don Manuel de Vacaro, of the name of Pablo Blanco, of
Palamos, who had often acted as my servant during my geodesic
operations. My false passport would become from this moment useless, if
Pablo should recognize me: I went to bed at once, covered my head with
the counterpane, and lay as still as a statue.
During the two days which elapsed between our capture and our entrance
into the roads of Rosas, Pablo, whose curiosity often brought him into
the room, used to exclaim, "There is one passenger whom I have not yet
managed to get a sight of."
When we arrived at Rosas it was decided that we should be placed in
quarantine in a dismantled windmill, situated on the road leading to
Figueras. I was careful to disembark in a boat to which Pablo did not
belong. The corsair departed for a new cruise, and I was for a moment
freed from the harassing thoughts which my old servant had caused me.
Our ship was richly laden; the Spanish authorities were immediately
desirous to declare it a lawful prize. They pretended to believe that I
was the proprietor of it, and wished, in order to hasten things, to
interrogate me, even without awaiting the completion of the quarantine.
They stretched two cords between the mill and the shore, and a judge
placed himself in front of me. As the interrogatories were made from a
good distance, the numerous audience which encircled us took a direct
part in the questions and answers. I will endeavour to reproduce this
dialogue with all possible fidelity:--
"Who are you?"
"A poor roving merchant."
"Whence do you come?"
"From a country where you certainly never were."
"In a word, what country is it?"
I was afraid to answer, for the passports, steeped in vinegar, were in
the hands of the judge-instructor, and I had forgotten whether I was
from Schwekat or from Leoben. Finally I answered at all hazards:--
"I come from Schwekat."
And this information happily was found to agree with that of the
passport.
"You are as much from Schwekat as I am," answered the judge. "You are
Spanish, and, moreover, a Spaniard from the kingdom of Valencia, as I
perceive by your accent."
"Would you punish me, sir, because nature has endowed me with the gift
of languages? I learn with facility the dialects of those countries
through which I pass in the exercise of my trade; I have learnt, for
example, the dialect of Iviza."
"Very well, you shall be taken at your word. I see here a soldier from
Iviza; you shall hold a conversation with him."
"I consent; I will even sing the goat song."
Each of the verses of this song (if verses they be) terminates by an
imitation of the bleating of the goat.
I commenced at once, with an audacity at which I really feel astonished,
to chant this air, which is sung by all the shepherds of the island.
Ah graciada señora
Una canzo bouil canta
Bè, bè, bè, bè.
No sera gaira pulida
Nosé si vos agradara
Bè, bè, bè, bè.
At once my Ivizacan, upon whom this air had the effect of the _ranz des
vaches_ on the Swiss, declared, all in tears, that I was a native of
Iviza.
I then said to the judge that if he would put me in communication with a
person knowing the French language, he would arrive at just as
embarrassing a result. An _émigré_ officer of the Bourbon regiment
offered at once to make the experiment, and, after some phrases
interchanged between us, affirmed without hesitation that I was French.
The judge, rendered impatient, exclaimed, "Let us put an end to these
trials which decide nothing. I summon you, sir, to tell me who you are.
I promise that your life will be safe if you answer me with sincerity.
"My greatest wish would be to give an answer to your satisfaction. I
will, then, try to do so; but I warn you that I am not going to tell you
the truth. I am son of the innkeeper at Mataro." "I know that innkeeper;
you are not his son." "You are right. I announced to you that I should
vary my answers until one of them should suit you. I retract then, and
tell you that I am a _titiretero_, (player of marionettes,) and that I
practised at Lerida."
A loud shout of laughter from the multitude encircling us greeted this
answer, and put an end to the questions.
"I swear by the d----l," exclaimed the judge, "that I will discover
sooner or later who you are!"
And he retired.
The Arabs, the Moroccans, the Jews, who witnessed this interrogatory,
understood nothing of it; they had only seen that I had not allowed
myself to be intimidated. At the close of the interview they came to
kiss my hand, and gave me, from this moment, their entire confidence.
I became their secretary for all the individual or collective
remonstrances which they thought they had a right to address to the
Spanish Government; and this right was incontestable. Every day I was
occupied in drawing up petitions, especially in the name of the two
ostrich-feather merchants, one of whom called himself a tolerably near
relation of the Emperor of Morocco. Astonished at the rapidity with
which I filled a page of my writing, they imagined, doubtless, that I
should write as fast in Arabic characters, when it should be requisite
to transcribe passages from the Koran; and that this would form both for
me and for them the source of a brilliant fortune, and they besought me,
in the most earnest way, to become a Mahometan.
Very little reassured by the last words of the judge, I sought means of
safety from another quarter.
I was the possessor of a safe-conduct from the English Admiralty; I
therefore wrote a confidential letter to the captain of an English
vessel, The Eagle, I think, which had cast anchor some days before in
the roads at Rosas. I explained to him my position. "You can," I said to
him, "claim me, because I have an English passport. If this proceeding
should cost you too much, have the goodness at least to take my
manuscripts and to send them to the Royal Society in London."
One of the soldiers who guarded us, and in whom I had fortunately
inspired some interest, undertook to deliver my letter. The English
captain came to see me; his name was, if my memory is right, George
Eyre. We had a private conversation on the shore. George Eyre thought,
perhaps, that the manuscripts of my observations were contained in a
register bound in morocco, and with gilt edges to the leaves. When he
saw that these manuscripts were composed of single leaves, covered with
figures, which I had hidden under my shirt, disdain succeeded to
interest, and he quitted me hastily. Having returned on board, he wrote
me a letter which I could find if needful, in which he said to me,--"I
cannot mix myself up in your affairs; address yourself to the Spanish
Government; I am persuaded that it will do justice to your
remonstrance, and will not molest you." As I had not the same persuasion
as Captain George Eyre, I chose to take no notice of his advice.
I ought to mention that some time after having related these particulars
in England, at Sir Joseph Banks's, the conduct of George Eyre was
severely blamed; but when a man breakfasts and dines to the sound of
harmonious music, can he accord his interest to a poor devil sleeping on
straw and nibbled by vermin, even though he have manuscripts under his
shirt? I may add that I (unfortunately for me) had to do with a captain
of an unusual character. For, some days later, a new vessel, The
Colossus, having arrived in the roads, the Norwegian, Captain Krog,
although he had not, like me, an Admiralty passport, made an application
to the commander of this new ship; he was immediately claimed, and
relieved from captivity.
The report that I was a Spanish deserter, and proprietor of the vessel,
acquiring more and more credit, and this position being the most
dangerous of all, I resolved to get out of it. I begged the commandant
of the place, M. Alloy, to come to receive my declaration, and I
announced to him that I was French. To prove to him the truth of my
words, I invited him to send for Pablo Blanco, the sailor in the service
of the corsair who took us, and who had returned from his cruise a short
time before. This was done as I wished. In disembarking, Pablo Blanco,
who had not been warned, exclaimed with surprise: "What! you, Don
Francisco, mixed up with all these miscreants!" The sailor gave the
Governor circumstantial evidence as to the mission which I fulfilled
with two Spanish commissaries. My nationality thus became proved.
That same day Alloy was replaced in the command of the fortress by the
Irish Colonel of the Ultonian regiment; the corsair left for a fresh
cruise, taking away Pablo Blanco; and I became once more the roving
merchant from Schwekat.
From the windmill, where we underwent our quarantine, I could see the
tricoloured flag flying on the fortress of Figueras. The reconnoitring
parties of the cavalry came sometimes within five or six hundred metres;
it would not then have been difficult for me to escape. However, as the
regulations against those who violate the sanitary laws are very
rigorous in Spain, as they pronounce the penalty of death against him
who infringes them, I only determined to make my escape on the eve of
our admission to pratique.
The night being come I crept on all-fours along the briars, and I should
soon have got beyond the line of sentinels who guarded us. A noisy
uproar which I heard among the Moors made me determine to reënter, and I
found these poor people in an unspeakable state of uneasiness, thinking
themselves lost if I left; I therefore remained.
The next day a strong picquet of troops presented itself before the
mill. The manoeuvres made by it inspired all of us with anxiety, but
especially Captain Krog.[3] "What will they do with us?" he exclaimed.
"Alas! you will see only too soon," replied the Spanish officer. This
answer made every one believe that they were going to shoot us. What
might have strengthened me in this idea was the obstinacy with which
Captain Krog and two other individuals of small size hid themselves
behind me. A handling of arms made us think that we had but a few
seconds to live.
In analyzing the feelings which I experienced on this solemn occasion, I
have come to the conclusion that the man who is led to death is not as
unhappy as the public imagines him to be. Fifty ideas presented
themselves nearly simultaneously to my mind, and I did not rack my brain
for any of them; I only recollect the two following, which have remained
engraved on my memory. On turning my head to the right, I saw the
national flag flying on the bastions of Figueras, and I said to myself,
"If I were to move a few hundred metres, I should be surrounded by
comrades, by friends, by fellow citizens, who would receive me
affectionately. Here, without their being able to impute any crime to
me, I am going to suffer death at twenty-two years of age." But what
agitated me more deeply was this: looking towards the Pyrenees, I could
distinctly see their peaks, and I reflected that my mother, on the other
side of the chain, might at this awful moment be looking peaceably at
them.
The Spanish authorities, finding that to redeem my life I would not
declare myself the owner of the vessel, had us conducted without farther
molestation to the fortress of Rosas. Having to file through nearly all
the inhabitants of the town, I had wished at first, through a false
feeling of shame, to leave in the mill the remains of our week's meals.
But M. Berthémie, more prudent than I, carried over his shoulder a great
quantity of pieces of black bread, tied up with packthread. I imitated
him. I furnished myself famously from our old stock, set it on my
shoulder, and it was with this accoutrement that I made my entrance into
the famous fortress.
They placed us in a casemate, where we had barely the space necessary
for lying down. In the windmill, they used to bring us, from time to
time, some provisions, which came from our boat. Here, the Spanish
government purveyed our food. We received every day some bread and a
ration of rice; but as we had no means of dressing food, we were in
reality reduced to dry bread.
Dry bread was very unsubstantial food for one who could see from his
casemate, at the door of his prison, a sutler selling grapes at two
farthings a pound, and cooking, under the shelter of half a cask, bacon
and herrings; but we had no money to bring us into connection with this
merchant. I then decided, though with very great regret, to sell a watch
which my father had given me. I was only offered about a quarter of its
value; but I might well accept it, since there were no competitors for
it.
As possessors of sixty francs, M. Berthémie and I could now appease the
hunger from which we had long suffered; but we did not like this return
of fortune to be profitable to ourselves alone, and we made some
presents, which were very well received by our companions in captivity.
Though this sale of my watch brought some comfort to us, it was doomed
at a later period to plunge a family into sorrow.
The town of Rosas fell into the power of the French after a courageous
resistance. The prisoners of the garrison were sent to France, and
naturally passed through Perpignan. My father went in quest of news
wherever Spaniards were to be found. He entered a café at the moment
when a prisoner officer drew from his fob the watch which I had sold at
Rosas. My good father saw in this act the proof of my death, and fell
into a swoon. The officer had got the watch from a third party, and
could give no account of the fate of the person to whom it had
originally belonged.
The casemate having become necessary to the defenders of the fortress,
we were taken to a little chapel, where they deposited for twenty-four
hours those who had died in the hospital. There we were guarded by
peasants who had come across the mountain, from various villages, and
particularly from Cadaquès. These peasants, eager to recount all that
they had seen of interest during their one day's campaign, questioned me
as to the deeds and behaviour of all my companions in misfortune. I
satisfied their curiosity amply, being the only one of the set who could
speak Spanish.
To enlist their good will, I also questioned them at length upon the
subject of their village, on the work that they did there, on smuggling,
their principal sources of employment, &c. &c. They answered my
questions with the loquacity common to country rustics. The next day our
guards were replaced by some others who were inhabitants of the same
village. "In my business of a roving merchant," I said to these last, "I
have been at Cadaquès;" and then I began to talk to them of what I had
learnt the night before, of such an individual, who gave himself up to
smuggling with more success than others, of his beautiful residence, of
the property which he possessed near the village,--in short, of a number
of particulars which it seemed impossible for any but an inhabitant of
Cadaquès to know. My jest produced an unexpected effect. Such
circumstantial details, our guards said to themselves, cannot be known
by a roving merchant; this personage, whom we have found here in such
singular society, is certainly a native of Cadaquès; and the son of the
apothecary must be about his age. He had gone to try his fortune in
America; it is evidently he who fears to make himself known, having been
found with all his riches in a vessel on its way to France. The report
spread, became more consistent, and reached the ears of a sister of the
apothecary established at Rosas. She runs to me, believes she recognizes
me, and falls on my neck. I protest against the identity. "Well played!"
said she to me; "the case is serious, as you have been found in a vessel
coming to France; persist in your denial; circumstances may perhaps take
a more favourable turn, and I shall profit by them to insure your
deliverance. In the mean time, my dear nephew, I will let you want for
nothing." And truly every morning M. Berthémie and I received a
comfortable repast.
The church having become necessary to the garrison to serve as a
magazine, we were moved on the 25th of September, 1808, to a Trinity
fort, called the _Bouton de Rosas_, a citadel situated on a little
mountain at the entrance of the roads, and we were deposited deep under
ground, where the light of day did not penetrate on any side. We did not
long remain in this infected place, not because they had pity upon us,
but because it offered shelter for a part of the garrison attacked by
the French. They made us descend by night to the edge of the sea, and
then transported us on the 17th of October to the port of Palamos. We
were shut up in a hulk; we enjoyed, however, a certain degree of
liberty;--they allowed us to go on land, and to parade our miseries and
our rags in the town. It was there that I made the acquaintance of the
dowager Duchess of Orleans, mother of Louis Philippe. She had left the
town of Figueras, where she resided, because, she told me, thirty-two
bombs sent from the fortress had fallen in her house. She was then
intending to take refuge in Algiers, and she asked me to bring the
captain of the vessel to her, of whom, perhaps, she would have to
implore protection. I related to my "_raïs_" the misfortunes of the
Princess; he was moved by them, and I conducted him to her. On entering,
he took off his slippers from respect, as if he had entered within a
mosque, and holding them in his hand, he went to kiss the front of the
dress of Madame d'Orleans. The Princess Was alarmed at the sight of this
manly figure, wearing the longest beard I ever saw; she quickly
recovered herself, and the interview proceeded with a mixture of French
politeness and Oriental courtesy.
The sixty francs from Rosas were expended. Madame D'Orleans would have
liked much to assist us, but she was herself without money. All that she
could gratify us with was a piece of sugarbread. The evening of our
visit I was richer than the Princess. To avoid the fury of the people
the Spanish Government sent those French who had escaped the first
massacres back to France in slight boats. One of the _cartels_ came and
cast anchor by the side of our hulk. One of the unhappy emigrants
offered me a pinch of snuff. On opening the snuff-box I found there
"_una onza de oro_," (an ounce of gold,) the sole remains of his
fortune. I returned the snuff-box to him, with warm thanks, after having
shut up in it a paper containing these words:--"My fellow-countryman who
carries this note has rendered me a great service;--treat him as one of
your children." My petition was naturally favourably received; it was by
this bit of paper, the size of the _onza de oro_, that my family learnt
that I was still in existence, and it enabled my mother--a model of
piety--to cease saying masses for the repose of my soul.
Five days afterwards, one of my hardy compatriots arrived at Palamos,
after having traversed the line of posts both French and Spanish,
carrying to a merchant who had friends at Perpignan the proposal to
furnish me with all I was in need of. The Spaniard showed a great
inclination to agree to the proposal; but I did not profit by his good
will, because of the occurrence of events which I shall relate
presently.